Tales of Graces f Remastered Review – The Cycle of Violence

Review of Tales of Graces f Remastered

Tales of Graces f Remastered is the twelfth main installment in the Tales series, an action JRPG franchise that playfully plays with the expectations of the fantasy genre. This game tackles the cycle of violence with the series' signature cel-shaded graphics, playful humor, and unsubtle writing. While being simple and idealistic suits some games, I found this one suffered a bit for it.

Asbel Lhant and her little brother Hubert find a mysterious amnesiac girl while playing. They bring the newly named Sophie back to town only to discover that no one knows her. Asbel swears to his emotionally distant father that he will take care of Sophie and soon also befriends the young Prince Richard. Together with the butler's daughter, Cheria, the five form a strong bond.

The game starts off pretty slow, focusing on children playing and fighting with their families. But after a sudden tragedy, Asbel's childhood comes to an abrupt end. When he returns to Lhant City as an adult, all he wants is to protect those he left behind. But his old friends aren't as eager to take him back as he'd hoped, and something is terribly wrong with the prince he swore to lead astray.

And then Sophie abruptly reappears, not having aged a day, still determined to protect Asbel. As the crushing weight of responsibility falls on your shoulders, you must learn what it really means to protect everyone.

Classic combat

Tales of Graces f Remastered is an action JRPG with a real-time combat system. You guide your party around a small battlefield, chaining combos and keeping watch. The more Arts you use in quick succession, the more powerful they become. There's also a fairly nuanced dodging mechanic. And you can instruct your AI party members to follow specific strategies in battle.

You use two separate types of Arts to unleash different types of combos. The chain's capacity determines how many attacks you can unleash before you must retreat or defend. And Eleth Bursts can maximize CC and give you a chance to attack the enemy. You can do a ton of things and they're all fun, which makes battles a delight.

You unlock new abilities by equipping titles, which is cool. It's also a fun way to encourage level ups, as each title has rewards. The crafting system is also pretty good. And you can press a button to remember what to do next.

There are no random encounters. You run around the map, avoiding or interacting with monsters to trigger battles. Unfortunately, the camera is fixed, which can make it difficult to navigate and access some of the game's collectibles. These include fully voiced skits that flesh out the world and entertain the player. Sometimes they are sentimental, sometimes funny and sometimes informative.

Tales of Graces f Remastered is entertaining but flawed

Tales of Graces f Remastered's narrative is the main draw, and that narrative is unpredictable. Many conflicts are caused by characters making bad decisions or behaving badly. And some of the relationships are questionable, which is bad in a narrative game. The Tales series lives and dies by how invested you are in its characters. And this title has a really divisive cast.

The opening chapter, Childhood, is very long, especially if you're collecting all the parodies and leveling titles. Five hours after a group of kids got into mischief they started bothering me. The chapter ends on a very strong note, but it also paves the way for what comes next.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that a game about cycles of conflict and violence focuses so much on flawed parenting. But his blunt portrayal of Ashton Lance's physical and emotional abuse of his children clashes with attempts to make him a nuanced character later on. At the same time, the game refuses to commit to the somber tone its actions create.

This is a game that wants to be about intergenerational trauma and how difficult it is to end the cycle of violence. The pieces of a truly resonant theme are all there. What a shame it didn't make the landing.

It looks like a PS3 game

Tales of Graces f Remastered is an old game and it shows. Even remastered, this title looks like a PS3 game. The character designs are colorful and interesting, although I question adult Asbel walking around in a fancy disco outfit. Unfortunately, many of the environments and monster designs are quite generic.

The game offers voice acting in English and Japanese, as well as subtitles. The English voices are pretty decent, even those of the children. Although a definitive quality jump is needed after the first time jump. The soundtrack tends to take a backseat. It's not bad, but it rarely catches my attention. The opening is good though.

There is a lot of customization and replayability offered here. This title features four levels of difficulty and great control over the elements of the experience. You can disable vibration and encounters on the map, for example. Grade Shop allows you to further customize a single game. You can increase or decrease EXP gain, add extra health, and make your character faster, among other things.

Tales of Graces f Remastered has a lot to say about the causes of cycles of violence and abuse, and not all of it is executed well. The conclusion takes some beating given how brutal the opening is. And if you don't like inter-match drama and daddy issues, this may not be the game for you. That said, if you're a fan of JRPGs and especially Tales, I still recommend it. Maybe wait for a sale first.

***Steam code provided by publisher***